Wow ambi - I guess you really like the place eh!
. You don't seem to like your fellow pilots much either. Maybe it's to do with the fact that out in Nigeria you all live cheek-by-jowl, with more opportunities to really get to know the 'dark' side of your workmates than would be the case in UK, where many people just go back to their own homes after work and carry out their seedier activities in private?
However, let's just have a little balance here. Couldn't agree with you more about the management of OLOG/Bristow. However, there's probably little more actual gunfire than in the average large city in UK, and consideably less than in many cities in America. Once inside the wire-topped walls, it's nothing like a penitentiary, but I guess you guys need to have a serious dig at your inept management about the smoke detectors and fire-fighting arrangements - it can be done, as ACN improved a lot of those sorts of things when they adopted their Safety Management System (although a lot of that is still in the course of being implemented. NEPA (actually, Never Electrical Power Always) is renowned for its failures, but at least there are standby generators everywhere - though I do remember lots of problems at one Warri operation when a previous MD decided to get hold of some cheap Polish generator, rather than the more normal and reliable Caterpillar one!
I think your point about how much more Nigerian pilots are paid when on ad-hoc operations outside Nigeria is proably because they are paid a lot less than you are, for doing the same job when they are in Nigeria.
Two questions sabretooth does need to ask though, is why pilots with ACN are on 6/6 contracts when Bristow/OLOG are still on 7/5 and why he will be penalised if he stays on in Nigeria beyond the age of 58 with Bristow, when he can carry on receiving normal seniority increments up to age 65 with ACN.
At the end of the day, sabretooth, you'll either feel like Tom or like ambi, and that's just down to your personality and whether your first tour there goes well or not.